[Mailman-Developers] Mailman and GPG.
Chuq Von Rospach
chuqui@plaidworks.com
Wed, 8 Nov 2000 12:05:53 -0800
At 2:42 PM -0500 11/8/00, Barry A. Warsaw wrote:
>IMO, encryption and security will never
>passed the Grandma Test: could it be easy enough to understand and do
>correctly that your grandmother would use it?
this is a place I disagree with Barry -- I think it will, but not
until it's as easy to use as the web and email is. Which means the
client authors need to decide it's necessary to integrate into the
client tools, and serious enough about it to integrate in a non-geeky
way (i.e., Eudora's PGP plug-ins ain't it). That means serious user
interface design and integration.
And I think it will -- but not soon. Why? the U.S. recently made
digital signatures legally binding. that means encryption. And once
people start needing (or wanting) digital signatures, that'll drive
the integration of encryption. Until that happens, though, it'll
continue to be a niche technology. A crucial one, but not one you can
easily explain to mom and dad.
This is a job for the client tools. It can be and should be done. But
I don't see it happening soon, and I see government's globally
fighting it every step of the way...
--
Chuq Von Rospach - Plaidworks Consulting (mailto:chuqui@plaidworks.com)
Apple Mail List Gnome (mailto:chuq@apple.com)
Be just, and fear not.